Washington, DC — The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that it obtained a $258,868.75 judgment against defendant Deepak Singhal. The consent order of permanent injunction, entered by the Honorable Amy J. St. Eve of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, requires Deepak Singhal to pay $118,868.75 in disgorgement and a $140,000 civil monetary penalty. Additionally, the consent order bans Deepak Singhal from engaging in any commodity-related activity for a period of five years and bans defendant Meera Singhal for a period of two years. The consent order stems from a CFTC complaint filed on January 9, 2012 (see CFTC Press Release 6168-12, January 12, 2012).

In the consent order, the court concluded that Deepak Singhal engaged in a series of unlawful, non-competitive commodity options transactions on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). The court found that during times of low market volume, Deepak Singhal intentionally made non-competitive, fictitious sales by placing virtually simultaneous orders to buy in Meera Singhal’s account and orders to sell in his account, or conversely, placing virtually simultaneous orders to buy in his account and orders to sell in Meera Singhal’s account. The court concluded that Deepak Singhal’s non-competitive, fictitious sales often emanated from the exact same IP address in Bangalore, India.

The court found that through this unlawful practice, the defendants transferred, or aided and abetted in the transfer of $118,868.75 from Deepak Singhal’s account to Meera Singhal’s account. The court also concluded that Meera Singhal aided and abetted these fictitious sales by allowing an unauthorized person, Deepak Singhal, to trade her account.